]]>Glympse has raised a $12 million in funding as it continues to integrate its location-sharing service into more messaging apps, wearables and cars. New investors UMC Capital and Verizon Ventures chipped in the Series C round as well as existing backers Ignition Partners, Menlo Ventures and Naya Ventures.

In the last year, Glympse has signed deals with Verizon (hence its investment), Samsung and BlackBerry to integrate its technology directly into their messaging apps so users can share their location directly from a conversation. It’s brought an optimized version of its app to both the Samsung Galaxy Gear and the Pebble smart watches.

Those partnerships are key to Glympse’s business model, said CEO and co-founder Bryan Trussel. While Glympse’s stand-alone app will always be free to users, it charges licensing fees to any third-party that connects to its service, he said. Trussel didn’t reveal any specifics on total app downloads or Glympse sessions, but he said that with all of its partnerships its service is now in tens of millions of devices. Glympse is also starting to see a big shift in Glympse traffic away from its own app to its partners’ apps.

“The majority of Glympse sessions are still set through the app today, but by the end of the year the majority will be coming from our partners,” Trussel said.

Consequently Glympse is looking to add more partners and position its location-sharing as a de facto feature on every manner of navigation or collaboration service. One of the next big opportunities for Glympse will be targeting businesses, Trussel said. While Glympse is mainly a consumer peer-to-peer service, couriers, restaurants and limo and taxi companies could readily adopt location sharing.

“Fast forward five years, and we’ll have to think back on the days when we wondered where our pizza was,” Trussel said.

]]>You’ll soon be able to track your friends and family as they fly through air lanes thanks to a new deal brokered between Glympse and inflight Wi-Fi provider Gogo. While in the air and connected to Gogo’s in-plane network, customers will be able to use either Glympse’s app or website to temporary share their locations in the sky, letting them coordinate rides and plans with their families and friends.

Glympse is an incredibly useful service if you want to let your friends know your ETA or are arrange a meeting point in a crowded public space. But Gogo is adding something extra to the mix. Glympse Inflight is a special feature launching Friday that coordinates with Gogo’s flight tracking systems and network to update your location and flight info. Glympse isn’t trying to guess your arrival time based on your phone’s GPS coordinates and your 500 mph airspeed. Instead, it’s accessing the Federal Aviation Administration’s flight tracking databases which keep a continual watch on all traffic in the sky.

That also means the Glympse will continue working when the phone is turned off or disconnected from the network – a helpful feature since Glympse normally would constantly update your location over a network connection. Though new FAA regulations now allow fliers to use their devices in Wi-Fi mode from gate-to-gate, many customers won’t remain connected the entire flight, to avoid draining their batteries or paying the steep cost of a whole-flight Gogo plan.

There’s a lot not to like to Gogo – namely its slow speeds, spotty connectivity and expensive rates – however, it’s encouraging to see the company add useful services beyond mere Wi-Fi access. It plans to boost its speeds as well next year with a network upgrade.

In the next few weeks, Verizon will launch a new version of its Messages cross-platform texting app, incorporating a bevy of new communications and social media features. But the most significant upgrade comes courtesy of Glympse. Verizon Messages will allow customers to temporarily share their location with Glympse directly within the messaging client.

For those of you unfamiliar with Glympse, its a nifty service that lets users share their map coordinates, intended destinations and estimated times of arrival for set intervals, either within Glympse’s app or in a web browser. Normally when you send a Glympse, you open its app, designate recipients and set a duration. Recipients get a text message prompting them to open Glympse or a URL in a browser to see the sender’s location.

Verizon’s integration would allow you to skip all of those steps. Hitting a button in the Messages app instantly shares your location for 15 minutes with everyone in the conversation. Instead of getting links or app prompts, the recipients see the map rendered in Messages’ conversation stream. Messages users can also request Glympses from others through the same interface

In one sense this might seem like a minor time-saver, letting you avoid opening up another app or your browser, but in my mind it’s still an incredibly useful feature. The whole point of Glympse is coordination, and this allows you to coordinate via text and location all within the same interface, rather than switch back and forth between apps.

Since Verizon hasn’t launched the new features yet, I’ll reserve final judgment. But it does look like the carrier is doing some interesting things with its new messaging tool. Messages launched back in March as a cross-platform texting app, recreating the phone’s SMS client on PCs and tablets.

That version didn’t add any extra communications tools to the normal SMS/MMS feature set and worked out of the phone’s regular messaging client. This new version of Messages, however, will require customers to download a smartphone app to access enhanced content. Basically it’s Verizon’s version of an OTT app tied to its customers’ phone numbers and its own messaging infrastructure.

What else will come with the new app? Verizon spokesman David Samberg shared a few more details with me over the phone: Messages will have the ability to record audio messages, which recipients can play back, as well as new postcard and collage picture message formats. Customers will also be add to captions to and draw digital sketches over their photo messages, Samberg said.

]]>Samsung’s new Galaxy Gear will launch with 70 native apps, though the company highlighted only a handful of them at its big unveiling in Berlin and New York on Wednesday. Among those listed were exercise apps you’d expect in sporty wearables like MyFitnessPal and RunKeeper, social networking apps like Path, and organization apps like Evernote and Tripit. But the one that particularly caught my eye was Glympse.

Glympse is a location-sharing and collaboration app, allowing you to temporarily transmit your location, intended destination and expected time or arrival to anyone with an internet connection. If you haven’t used it, it’s an extremely handy app for, say, meeting friends at an outdoor festival, or letting the in-laws know your ETA without having to field phone calls or text messages while driving.

But it’s also an extremely simple app that would be far more useful on my wrist or on the dashboard of my car, than in a smartphone buried in my pocket. If you’re in the driver’s seat or being jostled in a crowd the last thing you want to do is retrieve your phone, unlock your screen and open your Glympse app.

Glympse couldn’t agree more. It’s programmed all of its core functions into the Galaxy Gear app itself. Instead of just getting Glympse alerts or notifications on your wrist, you can actually view a full map, letting you track your friends’ whereabouts, see how far away you all are from an agreed-upon meeting point. You can also broadcast your location and request your friends’ locations with a few swipes of the Gear touchscreen.

According to a Glympse spokeswoman, the app functions entirely independently of any smartphone software, though you can still use the Android app in your Samsung handset. It only relies on the smartphone for its connectivity to the internet and to supply its location coordinates, since the Gear doesn’t have GPS or cellular triangulation capabilities.

As my colleague Kevin Tofel wrote last week, wearable tech is ideal for contextual nuggets of information — it’s not a replacement for the smartphone or tablet:

The innovation I’m expecting is in hyper-personal contextual data: A watch or wearable that knows where you are, where you need to be, what’s next on your calendar, what your likes and dislikes are. Think of a personal assistant that’s better suited for glancing at data points on your wrist then forcing you to retrieve a phone from your pocket.

As with Kevin’s Google Now example, the second-best place for Glympse is on a smartphone. The reason is simple: Glympse is most useful when you’re engaged in some other activity, such as driving or walking or having a conversation with friends. The information Glympse is conveying is minimal – just a flashing icon on a map or a simple ETA. It’s not the kind of app you need to become fully immersed in on a smartphone display.

These new device designs and how apps are being recreated to take advantage of them will be two key topics at GigaOM’s Mobilize conference in San Francisco Oct. 16-17. In fact, Samsung’s own Head of Design Studio Dennis Miloseski will be on hand to talk specifically about Samsung and the mobile industry’s new approach to hardware design.

The Gear is the first wearable Glympse has found its way into, but the startup is plenty aggressive in the parallel internet of things world of the connected car. It’s already signed deals with Ford, BMW, Mercedes Benz and Gamin to bundle its app or its location sharing technology into their connected car and vehicle navigation systems. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Glympse in Google Glass and other wearable gadgets shortly.

]]>When Life360 launched in 2008, it built and designed its app around the principle that families wanted to know their members’ locations, and not just for suspicious spouses to keep track of their husbands. The idea was to create a tight-knit social network where the most sensitive real-time location could be shared, allowing families not only to communicate within a private group but coordinate their activities in real-time.

The model proved popular, and Life360 now has 17 million families using the app, but the company has come to the realization that this kind of ultra-exclusive social network would be useful beyond the nuclear family. Life360 plans to launch on Thursday a new feature called Circles in its iOS and Android apps that allows members to share their location on a temporary basis.

“Our users have been telling us how they wish there was a way to stay connected with non-family members, such as close friends, babysitters, dog walkers, Little League teams and more” co-founder and CEO Chris Hulls said in a statement. “Circles offers exactly what our users have asked for, with the ability to set custom privacy controls appropriate for each Circle.”

Circles work similar to Google+’s like-named feature, allowing you to create classes of contacts. Within those circles, members can send messages and check in to locations manually, but they don’t have automatic access to Life360’s core real-time location and geo-fencing features. An individual member can chose to share his or her location with a circle temporarily, much like Glympse users share their locations so they can coordinate arrival times and meeting places.

]]>Telenav’s Scout app is moving beyond mere navigation to include location sharing and planning features, which friends and family can use to coordinate their activities.

In a new update for the iPhone (no word yet on an Android update), Scout now has the ability to share any location or event with a friend via email, text of Facebook. And because Scout’s nav service works as an HTML5 app, those messages will automatically generate browser-based turn-by-turn directions to the location referenced – even if the recipient doesn’t have the Scout app.

The Scout update also incorporates a feature that will send out your estimated time of arrival via a text message. For instance, if you’re meeting a friend at a restaurant, Scout can send that friend a message as soon as you launch the route, calculating ETA not only on distance, but speed limits, traffic lights and real-time congestion data.

You can even program the app to send out your ETA to specific people anytime you start a particularly route. So anytime you program your iPhone to take you home, your spouse would get a message notifying him or her of when to expect you. Or if you’re heading to daycare to pick up your kid, the app will send a similar message to your child’s caretaker.

Finally Telenav is inserting real-time event data into the app. Instead of merely finding the baseball stadium on the map, you can discover when and which games are being played.

]]>My wife tells me she’ll meet me at a certain time, but she’s often a little too optimistic about when she can depart and how much time she’s set aside to get there. But a new app might just solve our problem.

The Twist app for iOS helps you share your estimated time of arrival with friends and colleagues, so they have an up-to-date sense of when they should expect you. The app uses your location and current traffic data to communicate an accurate arrival time. But it doesn’t start broadcasting your ETA until you leave.

The company, founded by serial entrepreneur and investor Bill Lee and Mike Belshe, an original Google Chrome team member, just raised $6 million in funding from Bridgescale Partners and a number of other investors.

Users start a Twist by identifying where they are headed, which can be either a place or an address. The app plots a route for them by car, public transit or foot and provides an ETA. Users then decide with whom they want to share their Twist. The recipient gets a notice via text message or email when you leave your present location, as well as an estimate on your arrival time. Recipients can also request an update on your location while you’re en route. And if you run into traffic or stop off at a place, Twist updates your recipients on your new ETA. The app gives a notification when the user is one minute from their destination.

The service is kind of a mash-up between location sharing services like Glympse, which broadcast your current location, and Google Maps, which helps you navigate and plan trips. There are some nice touches like prompts to tell you when to leave to be on time, calendar integration which helps with easy routing to upcoming events and information about your destination. But the service has some limitations too. It only really works if you prepare ahead of time. You can program in favorite places, but you still have to remember to set a Twist beforehand to share your ETA. And it doesn’t work underground, which is how my wife and I usually travel.

I feel like Twist might be one of those apps you really wish your friends and family will use, but it might not be something you get into the habit of using yourself. Punctuality and communication are things that are easier to demand of others but harder to carry out yourself. But if you can remember to use it, Twist might be a nice way to be on time more often or, at least, it can help you be more thoughtful about communicating when you aren’t.

]]>Need to share your location for a limited amount of time and just with a single person? I don’t think I’ve seen an easier method than Mapfia, a new mobile app for iOS and Android. Springwise highlighted the software on Tuesday and I took a closer look. All you have to do is call someone and Mapfia shares the location of both people in the phone conversation for the length of the call. There is one caveat, however.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiCwvW3YSXU]
I installed the free software and used it for a test call; it showed a fake user nearby me on a map. A nice touch is the routing button on the map. Tap the button and Mapfia will show you how to navigate to your friend. I love the concept, which reminds me of Glympse, a similar app that I use often. Unlike Glympse, Mapfia doesn’t require any special action to share location. You simply use the app to make a voice call.

However, there’s a few items that may be sticking points for some and one relates to the reason I used the app’s test call feature instead of calling someone I know. Mapfia doesn’t have a dial pad, which sounds odd at first, but makes sense when you think about it. Both callers need to have Mapfia installed and be using it for the voice conversation. Mapfia says calls are free.

So how do you actually call someone with Mapfia? Upon installation you must give the application access to your phone’s contacts. There’s no way around this requirement that I can see. And once you do so, that app prompts you to invite any or all of your contacts to use Mapfia; this option you can skip. Of course, if you do that, you don’t have anyone to call and share your location with.

I’m not pointing this out as a problem with the software, because without both ends of the conversation using Mapfia, I can’t see how it would work. However, if you’re the type that doesn’t want to gain a service by sharing personal information of your own, or your friends, this isn’t the solution for you. I may keep it on my phone and add only my family members to the service as I’d most likely use it with them anyway.

]]>Yet another app has joined the growing ranks of over-the-top mobile VoIP services, but Sidecar is offering up a twist on the usual VoIP format. The San Francisco-based startup is using the voice call merely as the starting point to a richer media session, over which it is layering video, photo, location and contact information sharing features.

Services like video and location sharing certainly aren’t new, but they’re often trapped within their own dedicated apps. Sidecar’s premise is that those kind of sharing features are most useful when consumers are already engaged in a phone call, so it should only be a simple matter of hitting a button within your phone’s dialer to launch a video session or send the call’s recipient your street coordinates, said co-founder CEO Rob Williams, a RealNetworks and Openwave veteran.

“All of the cool stuff has happened on the data side of the phone,” Williams said. “I shouldn’t have to jump out of my voice call to share that stuff.”

The Android version of Sidecar app has been available in Google Play for the last several weeks as a beta app, but on Tuesday it launched the commercial versions of its iPhone and Android apps, both available as free downloads from their respective markets.

The Sidecar client integrates with the phone address book, and identifies individual users by their phone numbers, so if other sidecar users are among you contacts, the app recognizes them. Once a call a Sidecar session is established, the participants can just have a normal voice conversation, but the client presents them with a several collaboration choices.

The app can turn on the phone’s front or rear cameras to create a “see what I see” video session, and it allows a user to snap photos and share them. With another button tap, Sidecar can launch an interactive map showing the relative locations of the two speakers, either one of which can then designate a specific coordinates for a meetup. Users can share their own contact info or the contact info of any user in their respective address books. The app even has a chat service, called Whisper Text, which allows customers to send private text messages during the call.

Given that Sidecar is a peer-to-peer service, Williams is very conscious of the fact that the company needs to achieve a critical mass of users to make the app useful. To get maximize that network effect, Sidecar is trying to make its app the first place customers look to when placing any call. All Sidecar-to-Sidecar calls anywhere in the world are free (for now). Customers can initiate any call within the Sidecar client even if the recipient isn’t a Sidecar user, though none of the sharing features will be available.

If the caller is on a Wi-Fi network, Sidecar will turn launch an HD voice session — which the recipient receives as a regular voice call — for no charge to any U.S. or Canadian number. After the call ends, the recipient gets a text message, inviting him or her to download the app. If the caller is on the mobile network, Sidecar places a normal circuit-switched call through the carrier’s voice network.

Sidecar originally launched as SocialEyes in 2011, a Web-based video chat service, but the company soon shifted its focus to the smartphone. Along with Williams, the company was launched by RealNetworks founder Rob Glaser, and is funded by Ignition Partners and the Webb Investment Network as well as Glaser himself.

]]>Apple is not done taking on application makers with iOS 5. The iPhone manufacturer just announced it is launching a new location-sharing feature called Find My Friends, that will allow users to easily share their location with other users.

The details are still coming in but users will be able to share their location with friends and find out where their friends and family are in real-time. Users can specify when they want to share and what time they want to stop pushing out their location. It reportedly has simple privacy controls and parental restrictions. It’s a free addition as part of iOS 5 and will likely just work between iOS devices like iMessage does.

Although it’s just iOS only, it’s another case in which Apple is not afraid to include a feature that other companies have built their businesses off of. I recently wrote about Life360 and Location Labs and their family location-sharing services and apps. Loopt and Google’s Latitude also include location sharing. These apps are cross platform so they can appeal to a wider array of consumers. But Apple might be able to pull away some users who have an iOS household or have a lot of friends on iOS.

I don’t think existing location services need to fear immediately unless iOS can overtake Android and become the default smartphone for users. But I’d be more worried for paid services like Location Labs, which provides a white-label service to AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile.

But Find My Friends could also, if done right, help ease people into the idea of location sharing, which is still a privacy concern for many. By giving more granular controls, it might help convince people of the utility of sharing this information. And it might open up opportunities for app makers to go up market and stay ahead of Apple by offering more premium experiences. That’s the feeling Instapaper maker Marco Arment, who said there’s plenty of room in the market for Apple and its new Reader time-shifting functionality.

But again, it’s a good reminder that platform holders can shake things up and introduce features that can compete against existing third-party offerings. It might shine a light on location-sharing, which can be good for many location-based services but it could also mean more competition for apps and services, who will need to step up their game.